I should practice some sight-singing!
Why not? It's a nice enough skill to have, and I'm sure it helps with memory and a bunch of other things.
Yeah, that's the best thing I learned through practice and experience, sight-singing. I don't know if in my case it would have made a difference to start learning intervals and singing on cue at a younger age.
I hesitated to comment in this thread, because on reflection, it's not a matter of technique or discipline, but I was a pretty fierce alto (Eb) saxophone player at the same time as learning basic piano literally over the shoulder of an uncle who lived with us at the time.
Just coincidence, really: I would be a much better technician if I knew then what I know now, but it's not certain to me that I wouldn't have lost some other experiences as a musician or person. Couldn't really say which is better.
And, yet, while I was transposing all this stuff from concert-key sheet music for performance, I didn't even know Charlie Parker existed. Nor, on piano, I didn't know anything but Eubie Blake and Jelly Roll Morton and Scott Joplin, Charles Lamb. It took until I was in my teens to discover beyond, but by that time <cue Civil War theme music> I realized, dear Martha, that my time spent on the piano had not been for naught. </end cue>.
Yeah, about age eleven or twelve or so I got hooked up with a college professor who had unbelievable patience. Actually, two of them: Don W. was more a theory, ear-training guy, although he was a competent pianist who was obsessed with what was at that time state-of-the-art computer programs for learning intervals and singing them, as well as writing by hand counterpoint exercises and all that. And Denise was a fully-fledged adjunct professor at a very well known local college: even though she didn't drill me on scales and abstract exercises as I progressed to probably grade
n or so by age fourteen or fifteen, enough to perform on stage for the graded examinations, she did make sure there's no question of proper fingering of scales and arpeggios. And then, from there, high school in the US, playing guitar and learning blues and rock and roll piano off records.
But, Denise did insist on from the beginning correct technique, and once I'd achieved that, she was more of an expert consultant or advisor. I think she could have insisted a bit on achieving more complete technique, but she seemed happy when I brought in real repertoire, and gave very sound advice.
Hard to say: if things had been different, and if I'd had a more structured program from the beginning, I'd likely be a better mechanic today, but it's just one of those things.
I'd put myself, if I were back then overseeing my younger self, on a stricter diet of accomplishment, but that was a long time ago.
So, that's how I ended up: I don't even pretend to be able to teach kids, but I can easily show people how to play some stuff, just like how people showed me by looking over the shoulder as a kid. And, the benfit is that I can do it with correct technique and not just like a lot of ear players, "yeah, just slide 4-4 off the Ab, it's good enough." Although often that's exactly what's needed.
The other good thing after coming up on a variety of pianos is that I learned to deal with horrible pianos. In practice rooms as an undergraduate, on stage as a teenager, and so forth.
I'm very glad I grew up around real pianos, but it was a revelation to play my own instrument, after so many years hanging out at Sam Ash and playing the floor models.
No, I was probably 22 or 23 when I was able to buy my own stage piano, a proper stand, and a nice PA speaker etc.
I've never looked back: as a teenager who played on crappy pianos at home, except for Denise's Hamburg Steinway and various stage pianos, that was freedom.
I'll add I'm still glad to own my own rig, plus the Rhodes, the Wurlitzer, and the Hammond-Suzuki. I'm happy to own my own rig that can be setup on stage, with my own gear, because I've played way too many bad pianos. At least my own gear is always in tune (well...sort of).